The Badlands
We cross the Missouri River on the morning of June 29th and speed along
through comparatively new but highly productive agricultural land,
through Hayes, Midland and Philip to Cottonwood. In Philip we find one
of the most modern small cities of the state. It is worth stopping to
see. When we arrive at Cottonwood, about three hours from Pierre, or a
little less than one hundred ten miles, the weather seems favorable and
the roads good so we turn south off U. S. highway 14. Only a few miles
out of Cottonwood we look ahead and see the city-like elevations far in
the distance. As we draw nearer this great wall of clay takes on a more
artistic contour of multicolored towers, peaks, and walls, resembling
ruins of ancient cities.
[Illustration: Castle Turrets
Fuson Photo]
Countless theories and possibilities enter one’s mind to account for
these magnificent walls, rising directly from a few feet to several
hundred feet from level country. The level plains are grass covered, but
the walls are practically bare. They are of almost pure sandy clay, with
a little soft shale in a layer near the top. They average from a hundred
to five hundred feet in height and are composed of several colors each,
some containing yellow, pink, orange and blue, others having still
different colors. For the most part the colors are plain or washed, but
some are very pronounced.
Other sections of the Badlands are depressions from the grassy flats,
with enormous areas seemingly fallen straight down two to twenty feet,
with perpendicular sides. The beds of these great depressions are bare
yellow or white clay.
Theories of the formation of these structures include “sea bottom,”
“erosion,” “volcanic eruptions,” etc.
[Illustration: Summit of Cedar Pass, Interior
Canedy Photo]
Seventeen miles from Cottonwood we drive through Cedar Pass into the
Badlands. The road winds around and around, through depressions and
through valleys between the great clay banks, ever leading upward. The
grandeur of the enormous colored banks and walls would impress even the
most barren minded person.
If one is coming over the C. B. H., (or A Y P.); (U. S. 16 to be
specific), he must leave for S. D. No. 40 about fifteen miles west of
Kadoka, and he will emerge at Cedar Pass the same as though he came from
the north. The view is magnificent.
Finally the road gets narrow and precipitous. The passes become more
crooked and the grades more steep. The road is bordered by profuse scrub
cedar trees. There is a thrill in that drive! At first it looks
dangerous, but the danger seems to minimize as we approach each more
steep and more crooked and more narrow section. By taking it slowly the
risk is small. (The road has since been improved.)
[Illustration: Amphitheatre of the Wilds. In the Bad Lands
Canedy Photo]
[Illustration: Vampire Peak in Cedar Pass, Interior. The entrance to
the Big Bad Lands
Canedy Photo]
[Illustration: Studying the Bad Lands]
[Illustration: Another Bad Lands Scene]
We descend the south slope of the ridge, past the new Cedar Pass Camp,
and drive five miles or so over a good road into Interior. On the way,
however, we stop and walk for some distance among the hills. We find the
clay to be hard and firm, resembling baked mud in texture. Each rain
washes a little of the clay down, causing a gradual erosion through the
years. This process has gradually uncovered the remains of life of this
country at the time of its formation. We find a petrified tooth of some
great animal. The tooth is about four inches long and two wide. Some
distance farther we run across a mammoth rock formation embedded in the
clay. It resembles and may have been the remains of a turtle six or
seven feet in diameter, with head and feet protruding out of the bank.
From these same environs scientists have taken great petrified skeletons
of ancient mastodons, reptiles, birds and beasts of all shapes and
sizes. We can easily imagine how these beasts got bogged down in this
once soft, spongy ex-sea-bottom, there to remain through these
centuries.
We spend more time than we had planned examining the place, so we find
ourselves in Interior for the night. We pitch camp, and during the night
receive our first rain on the trip. Our sympathy for the poor little
mouse who had appropriated a little of the tent roof for his nest is not
very pronounced.
The next morning we rise early. We hike to “Big Foot,” a high clay ridge
south of town, and climb it. It proves much higher and more difficult to
climb than first appearances indicate. The climb is a thriller,
especially as the clay is a bit slippery this morning.
[Illustration: Manitou Mountain in the Bad Lands]
We return for breakfast, stopping in a field on the way to examine a
huge oil drilling rig which has been wrecked many years ago. It is made
almost entirely of oak, some timbers being two feet square and very
long. The main belt wheel is twelve feet in diameter, made also of wood.
To us this is a sight.
[Illustration: Castle of Ancients, near Scenic
Canedy Photo]
The bacon and coffee are more than welcome when we return. After
breakfast we strike camp and drive into town. There Palmer’s Curio shop
attracts us for some time. We leave with several calcium silicate
crystals and specimens of the world’s only sand crystals.
The most interesting person met on our trip is found in Interior. He is
Mr. Henry Thompson, who runs a little souvenir stand called “The
Wonderland.” He wears long, flowing white hair and a great flowing
moustache of the same color. His acquaintance with the country dates
back many a year.
No one going through Interior should miss him. He tells some very
interesting tales of early days in the West. Recently a motion picture
company used him in the role of the Patriarch Moses in the mountains. He
gives us a rehearsal of the role he played and recounts the garb of
animal skins he wore, and other interesting features of the adventure.
We listen with open mouths, and find it difficult to tear ourselves away
for the continuance of our journey.
Twenty-four miles west of Interior, after traveling through the scenic
splendor of the Badlands we come upon a vast expanse of land covered
with a crust of once molten rock about an inch thick, now all broken
into fragments. The formation consists of two hardened layers of once
molten rock, probably of calcium silicate composition, smooth on the
outer edges and joined together by countless papilae, making the whole
look like two layers joined by a porous center. There is no doubt in
one’s mind, upon viewing it, that Satan must surely have had his
headquarters here at some time or other.
[Illustration: Castle Rock in the Bad Lands, near Scenic
Canedy Photo]
We follow State Highway Number 40 through other Badland wonders five
miles farther. The road is very good. At Scenic we visit the widely
known Museum Filling Station. Here we see a beautiful and interesting
collection of stones from the Black Hills. In fact the entire building
is covered with rocks, fossils and other interesting things embedded in
concrete. Prehistoric animal bones and Indian relics from the Badlands
are within. The bones, the curious animals, the pictures, the petrified
eggs, the skeletons, Indian relics and numerous other curios are
remarkable.
[Illustration: The Alter in the Castles of the Ancients
Canedy Photo]
They have attracted people from throughout the world, not for a hasty
examination but for extensive study. This place is one of the important
places to see in the Badlands. One cannot afford to miss it under any
circumstances.
The vicinity of Scenic is known to scientists as the greatest fossil
field in the United States. Scenic is also an Indian trading post.
South of Scenic are some of the most spectacular examples of erosion in
the United States. Some of the names assigned to them are: “Castle of
the Ancients,” “The Altar of the Gods,” “Castle Rock,” “Castle Turrets,”
“The Sphinx Twins,” “The Silent Sentinel,” “Amphitheater of the Wilds”
and “The Devil’s Golf Course.” These remarkable formations almost hold
us in reverent awe, so stupendous are they in their unusualness and
grandeur.
[Illustration: LOWER ENTRANCE TO DILLON PASS
Canedy Photo]
“Hell’s Ten Thousand Acres,” from Scenic south are equal in some ways to
the Grand Canyon of Colorado in their ruggedness. “Hell’s Sunken
Gardens,” south also, surpasses in beauty and magnitude anything of its
kind in the world.
[Illustration: Bad Lands Museum, Scenic]
Wounded Knee Battlefield, the last stand of the Sioux, is also south of
Scenic. Here hundreds of Indians, men, women and children, were
massacred by the soldiers when they stubbornly resisted the coming of
law and government to take from them their hunting grounds. These
Indians were all buried in one long grave, marked now with a tall marble
slab on which are chiseled the odd names of the Indian dead.
The management of the Museum Filling Station is very enthusiastic about
the “Great Badlands.” They will furnish any additional information
desired and will furnish guides at a reasonable cost to those who desire
such in visiting the wonders to the south.
From Scenic, trail 40 leads on to Rapid City. Some of the finer views of
the Badlands are found along this road.
On to Rapid City we drive, over an excellent dirt road. We stop on the
Cheyenne River to eat our lunch. These little picnic grounds all help to
make the trip a really enjoyable vacation. We must stop at the turn in
the road for a drink of Nature’s purest nectar flowing through a huge
fountain. This is just a few miles before we reach Rapid City.
[Illustration: A Bad Lands Scene]
[Illustration: The Devil’s Golf Course, Scenic
Canedy Photo]
[Illustration: The Silent Sentinel, Scenic
Canedy Photo]
From Scenic to Rapid City is about forty-five miles. After leaving
Scenic the silhouetted black mountains, soon come into view. They are
visible in their magnificent grandeur, fifty miles distant, growing more
distinct as they are approached. Upon nearing them, if one is familiar
with the various peaks, he can pick each out and call it by name.
We reach Rapid City in the eastern foothills, at four o’clock. The
School of Mines museum at the entrance to the city, also nationally and
internationally known, is our first point of interest in the “Hills.”
[Illustration: The route taken]